Picasso Gaglione, A Accordion Book, self-published, Knoxville, 2022

My mate Picasso Gaglione has been sending me a bunch of his DIY accordions over the last year or so, and some are more wacky than others (search this blog!). But this one combines a photograph of us both from when I visited Picasso in his lair deep in the Knoxville countryside, and I'm assuming he must have been showing me the latest issue of his artists' periodical Stampzine. To participate in this cool rubber stamp assembling zine, see below for submissions info: Stamplandchicago.com - Posts | Facebook

And then with the flick of a wrist the attached accordion comes to life. Nice one, Picasso!

6 single-sided pages, size 1" x 1.5", and when unfolded 9".

Paul Éluard, Liberté, Flammarion, Paris, 1945/2012

This accordion is based on the poem of the same name by the well-known French Surrealist poet Paul Éluard (1895-1952). Written in 1942 in the dark days of the German occupation the poem consists of 22 quatrains. It's only in the final quatrain that Éluard plays his hand and specifically declares what he is writing about.

By the power of the word

I regain my life

I was born to know you

And to name you Liberté

One side of this French edition of the accordion reproduces the 22 quartrains that make up the poem, and the other side features cutouts at the top of the pages, along with information about the German occupation, an appreciation of Éluard as an 'engaged poet', and a recounting of how this resistance poem would become so well known. 

This accordion's rather unique design was conceived by Anouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud.

20 double-sided pages, page height is variable, width 7.5", when fully open 12ft 6".

back cover